


Fairyland

by sweetcarolanne



Category: Jolene - Dolly Parton (Song)
Genre: Dreams, F/F, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Magic, Pre-Poly, Romance, Surreal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28127949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: When Mae's young husband falls under the spell of the Fae Queen Jolene, Mae agrees to take his place in return for his freedom...
Relationships: Jolene/Man/Narrator (Jolene), Jolene/Narrator (Jolene), Man/Narrator (Jolene)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 26
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Fairyland

**Author's Note:**

  * For [serephemeral](https://archiveofourown.org/users/serephemeral/gifts).



> Dear recipient, I hope you enjoy this story!
> 
> Many thanks to my anonymous beta.

“And what will you give me if I leave your man alone, now, honey?”

Jolene’s eyes sparkled playfully, but a cold shiver of fear ran down Mae’s spine just the same. This was no ordinary girl who might have caught the eye of Mae’s new husband for a moment, one who would soon be forgotten when he came home to his bride.

She was scarcely human at all, in fact, although she wore the face and form of the most beautiful woman the entire county had ever seen. A face and form she had used to ensnare the heart and soul of Mae’s beloved. 

Johnny had walked through the Devil’s Holler at midnight, tired from a long day at work, not leaving the customary offerings of milk and fresh-baked bread. And doing so had wakened the vengeful spirit of the Fae Queen, a spirit which now animated the green eyes of Jolene.

Eyes which were irresistible, for when their long eyelashes lowered and looked Mae up and down, Mae trembled and blushed just as she had on her wedding day. She could see why Johnny had become enamoured, and she knew that it would be a struggle to not fall under Jolene’s spell herself.

Mae drew a sharp, shuddering breath. She knew full well that the gifts of food and drink she had brought with her to Jolene’s cabin in the woods would not be sufficient payment for what she had come to beg for.

“Anything you want. My silver cross necklace, my wedding ring… we don’t have much money in the bank but whatever’s there, it’s yours! Just please, don’t take my Johnny away from me!”

Jolene laughed, the sound like silver bells, and she reached out to touch Mae’s dark curls with a serene expression on her face.

“Keep your money and your jewelry, my dear, I have no need of such worldly things.”

“Then what are you asking?” Mae’s voice quavered, and Jolene tilted her head with an enigmatic smile.

“For someone to take his place. And she’s standing here in this room with me, right now.”

Jolene placed a tender kiss, light as a butterfly, on Mae’s forehead.

“By day, you shall be by Johnny’s side, but at night, in your most secret dreams, you shall be mine.”

“I accept.”

Mae spoke without thinking, for how hard could it be, to visit with Jolene as she slept and in the daylight continue to live as a happy, newly-wedded wife? 

A slow, sensual smile lit up the lovely face of Jolene.

“So be it. By midnight you will be with me in Fairyland, and I will have a gift for you.”

Mae walked home through the woods at sundown, thoughts swirling in her head till she arrived home. Johnny, mercifully home early that night, met her at the gate with a kiss and the warmest of embraces, as he always did, and over dinner not a word was spoken of Jolene. The trance-like, faraway look that had made Mae sick with despair was gone from his blue eyes, and Mae found herself praying silently that Jolene had kept her word.

She put on her long white cotton nightgown, brushed her hair with one hundred strokes and said her prayers before she lay down under the homemade quilt and snuggled up in Johnny’s arms. Moonlight shone in through the window, and Mae looked up at the silver crescent in the sky and hoped she would forget her dreams by morning.

It felt like forever before Mae fell asleep, but at last her eyelids were too heavy to stay open.

When she opened them again, she was standing inside Jolene’s little log cabin once again, and she was alone, though a hint of jasmine perfume, strangely like Jolene’s, lingered in the air.

Mae stood in the kitchen, next to the table where a small rag doll was lying, clad in a dress of red and white gingham and with yellow yarn hair in two braids tied with bright red bows. She picked her up and gasped with love and recognition.

“Annie, is it you? Can it really be?”

Her own dear childhood plaything was as good as new, although the doll had been somewhat dirty and dilapidated when Mae had last seen her. Annie’s dress and ribbons were clean and smelled sweet, and her pink-cheeked face was even prettier than the day Grandma had first laid this most precious of birthday gifts in five-year-old Mae’s eager hands. 

Mae had treasured that darling doll all her life, and had hoped to someday give Annie to her daughter, if she and Johnny were ever blessed by the birth of a little girl. But when Mae and Johnny moved into their new home, the doll was lost, and no amount of searching could bring her to light, despite everything in the house being turned upside down.

That loss had been a secret grief that weighed down Mae’s heart until that moment in the tiny moonlit room.

“Thank you,” Mae whispered, clutching the doll, but she did not know whether she was addressing God or Fate or the invisible Jolene.

When Mae awoke, Annie was lying beside her on the pillow, between her and the still soundly sleeping Johnny.

Mae drifted through her day as if in a daze, hardly paying attention to her household chores. She had thought the dream-life she had promised to Jolene would be something fearsome, the stuff of nightmares... but she sensed no malevolence from Jolene or any other unseen presence when she had found her own beloved doll.

It was without the previous evening’s sense of dread that Mae fell asleep that night.

Warm sun was touching Mae’s face when she sat up, lush green grass beneath her and a cloudless blue sky above. In the distance, across a flowing silvery river, she could see a group of people, several families, walking towards a small white church and singing a song she had loved as a child:

“As I went down in the river to pray  
Studying about that good ol’ way…”

Soft lips touched Mae’s cheek, and she heard a sweet female voice humming that glorious tune in her ear.

“So beautiful, both you and the song,” Jolene said, taking one of Mae's hands in hers and bringing it to her lips.

Mae’s heart was pounding, and she knew that this was how Johnny must have felt under the thrall of this ethereal beauty. All around her, small golden flowers peeked through the blades of grass, and butterflies of all hues rose through the perfumed air. Mae’s other hand twisted in her nightgown, her fingers oddly tense and refusing to be still.

“I thought… since your realm is called the Devil’s Holler…” Mae began, but Jolene laughed and shook her head.

“No devils here, as you can see, sweet Mae. And I’m never going to let any of them in.”

Jolene placed another kiss on Mae’s knuckles, and her eyes were shining.

“If there was evil here in Fairyland, no one could ever say or sing a godly word, and that’s the honest truth. You’ve heard it for yourself already, darlin’.”

Jolene took hold of Mae's other hand. Fingers entwined, they sat and watched the people filing into the church, and it was as if the entire world was echoing with that song. A deep peace fell upon Mae, and she gazed into the emerald brightness of Jolene’s eyes.

She felt almost sad when she woke up in bed and heard the rooster crowing outside the window, and Johnny’s soft snores in her ear.

“What’s wrong?” Johnny asked her that afternoon after she had left the bread to burn in the oven and had knocked the milk jug flying so that it shattered into pieces on the floor.

“Just remembering a dream,” Mae told him, pulling him into an embrace, right there in the kitchen, and giving him a reassuring kiss. She tightened her arms around Johnny, loving the solidity and strength of his body, but still longing to see the light in Jolene’s eyes and feel the delicate touch of Jolene’s hand in hers.

Mae somehow felt that Johnny understood what she meant by "remembering a dream," although she never once mentioned Jolene's name.

Johnny was holding Mae in his arms when she drifted off to sleep, and she wished that she could bring him with her into the dream world. She wished that she could stand by that river, holding both Jolene and Johnny by the hand amongst the flowers and the butterflies, hearing the churchgoers sing as they walked along the opposite bank, dressed in their Sunday best.

“I can tell what you’re wondering, Mae darlin’.”

Mae stood under a huge, gnarled old tree, its branches spreading overhead, covered with fragrant white blossoms. Jolene’s arms were wrapped around her waist, and some of those blossoms decorated both Jolene’s hair and Mae’s.

Jolene was dressed in a gown as white and filmy as those blossoms, looking like a bride beneath the tree’s shade. And Mae’s cotton nightgown had also transformed into a dress of silk and lace.

Mae blushed as Jolene tucked one of the blossoms behind her ear and gave her a tender kiss on the lips.

“You can?” she asked. Her voice was no more than a whisper and her throat was dry.

Jolene nodded. “Look over there,” she said.

Mae’s eyes followed where Jolene was pointing; coming towards them were the churchgoers, bearing handfuls of wildflowers with a scent far sweeter than honey. At the head of the procession, his blond hair gleaming brighter than the sun and his hands outstretched to Mae, was her own dear Johnny.

“There’s always room for more love here in Fairyland. You knew that deep down, Mae darlin’, and that’s why I brought you here.”

Jolene kissed Mae once again, and hand in hand they walked towards Johnny and the joyous congregation.


End file.
